In The Meantime
by Invader FanGirl
Summary: "Well, in the meantime, if you do happen to have-"
Stanley respawned in his office for the fourth time since the last Ending. He sighed in frustration. Okay, this was getting a _little_ annoying.

Just _what_ did The Narrator _expect_ to happen when he followed the Adventure Line™? It was a damn painted line for god's sake - an inanimate object! Although he was confused as to how the Line™ spiraled wildly on the walls, and even more so as It™ went into what seemed like a short hallway back into the same room. (Oh, he does _not_ want to even try to begin on explaining how that worked.) It was also strange how It™ led him around in a circle back into the Office, which, by the way, is what caused that irritating storyteller to restart again!

Now, that, dear readers, was what was so annoying. Restarts.

Simply looking forward, Stanley could see that the Line™ was still there, and was somehow left like the beginning of the last restart: going into a doorway ahead of him and not going in a circle and overlapping on Itself™. Its... probably part of the restart. R-Right?

Reluctantly, he stepped out of his office and followed the Line™ again. Surprisingly, as he went further away from his office, there was no dialogue. Just as Stanley began to ponder on why that was, the door he was heading towards shut itself.

 _"You know what, Stanley? I say forget the Adventure Line™, what's It™ ever done for us?"_ The Narrator asked, and Stanley looked towards the ceiling in confusion. _"We're intelligent people, right? Why can't we make up our own story? Something exciting, daring, mysterious..."_

Stanley's curiosity peaked at that; he actually liked the idea. He entertained the thought for a moment before The Narrator spoke up again.

 _"Oh, this all sounds perfectly doable! Why don't we start wandering in... well, I don't know... how about..."_ the door to the right of him opened, _"...this direction!"_

Stanley looked into the newly opened doorway, both excited for journeying into the unknown, and... just a little suspicious of what's to come. Nonetheless, he strayed from the Line™'s path and proceeded in the provided direction.

 _"Now, this is exciting!"_ The Narrator said, clearly enthusiastic about all of this. _"Just me and Stanley, forging a new path - a new story! Well, it could be anything! What do you want our story to be? Go wild! Use your imagination! Whatever it might be, Stanley, I'm ready for it!"_

The employee couldn't help but smile. It was strange; The Narrator referred to him so casually, so happily. It was almost as if...well...

As if they were friends.

...

... _Were_ they friends?

Stanley had always considered The Narrator to be like one of his coworkers - merely an acquaintance. They only knew each other, and that was all. But hearing The Narrator sound so glad to be following along with Stanley through all of this... the thought of them being friends... sounded... pretty nice.

He grinned. It could even be fun!

As Stanley ventured through the seemingly endless hallways, he tried to think of a new story, just like The Narrator had requested for him to do. Turning a corner, he was startled to see that Adventure Line™ thing again. How did It™ even get over here?! Was It™ sentient? If It™ was, well, Stanley wasn't sure on what to think of that.

 _"Oh, no, not You™ again!"_ The Narrator exclaimed in obvious irritation. He sighed. _"Stanley, I'd also like to veto the Line™ from having any part in our awesome new story. No Line™s or monitor rooms. Just don't acknowledge It™, and we should be fine. "_

Stanley nodded. It would be nice if the Line™ didn't appear in their 'new story,' if there was to even be one. That thing is creepy. He watched It™ spiral from the wall to the floor and then back up the ceiling. It™ seemed to finally decide to leave them both alone as It™ snaked up into a dark hole in the ceiling. Stanley looked ahead of himself and tried to not think of It™. He also tried to refrain from pondering on how a line could possibly follow him. Because now It™s starting to scare him a little.

He entered a light gray room with two doors and he smiled. Oh, finally, something familiar and sane for once. These crossroads reminded him of the simple room way back with two doors, and when he had decided to take the one on the right later leading him to his current location. Everything made so much sense back then... he missed such a time, even if it was about a half an hour ago.

The Narrator seemed to take notice of the doors too. _"Ah, a choice! We get to make a decision; from here, the story is in our control! How important we mustn't squander the opportunity._ " He said, and Stanley nodded in agreement. They couldn't just let the story revert into the chaos from before! He wasn't even sure if he could handle all of that again without going mad.

 _"In fact, I believe I need a minute to think here. Just walk in circles for a minute."_ As soon as he said that, a circle of arrows appeared on the floor with a small sound and Stanley flinched back in surprise. W-What the-?

The employee stared at the arrows wearily. After he recovered from the very slight shock, he began to walk around the circle clockwise, hesitantly and slowly. Okay, _maybe_ he was overreacting at something as simple as that, but _still..._

 _"Okay,"_ the storyteller began, _"so I know that each door has to lead somewhere, which means that somewhere at the place where we're trying to go, there must be a reverse door that leads here."_ He rambled, while Stanley changed direction and started going counterclockwise, just for the heck of it.

The Narrator continued. _"And that, in turn, means that our destination corresponds with the counter-inverted reverse door's origin! So starting from the right, let us ask: will taking the right door lead us to where we're going?_ " He asked; a rhetorical question.

Stanley stopped in his tracks and blinked. Wait... wait, wait wait wait - what? W-What? What...? He furrowed his brow and looked up at the ceiling. His head was honestly spinning as he tried to wrap his mind around all of that. Could he... could he repeat that, please?

The Narrator didn't do such a thing as he went on. _"And since the answer is clearly 'yes,' then by all accounts, the door on the right is the correct one! Another victory for logic. Come, Stanley, our destiny awaits!"_

With that, the door on the right opened. Even as he was still slightly disoriented from that complicated train of thought, Stanley eagerly entered the doorway, only to find a... bright white screen with text displayed all over it, said screen being titled at the top with: The Confusion Ending. Stanley narrowed his eyes up at the ceiling in disbelief and slight anger. Just what exactly was _this?_

 _"Oh, hold up, what's this?"_ The Narrator said as he took notice of the screen as well. _"Hmm... hmm, the confusion ending?"_ He read aloud, sounding just as surprised as Stanley felt. _"You're telling me... that's what this is? It's all one giant ending? And we're supposed to restart the game... what... eight, **eight** times? That's really how all this goes?!"_ He asked to no one in particular, and Stanley's glare softened. _"It's all... determined?"_

Stanley was now looking up at the ceiling, eyebrows raised. Wow, even _he_ didn't know what was going on? But... but he's _The Narrator!_ How could he not know what any of this stuff is?! Its _his_ game, isn't it?

 _"So now according to the schedule I restart again, then, what... am I just supposed to forget?"_ Stanley looked at the schedule, his mouth opening slightly in shock when he found that The Narrator was correct; he would forget all of this! And against his will! That's just sick. Sick and disgustingly twisted.

 _"Well, what if I don't want to forget!"_ Stanley's attention was then drawn back to the ceiling. _"My mind goes blank simply because it's written here on this... this... thing! Wall! Well, who consulted me? Why don't I get to decide! Why don't I get a say in all this! Is it really-..."_

At the pause, Stanley tilted his head. Really... what? What was he going to say?

The Narrator didn't finish his earlier thought as he went on. _"...No, it can't be. I don't want it to be. I don't want the game to keep restarting. I don't want to forget what's going on. I don't want to be trapped like this. I won't restart the game."_ Hearing this, a grin flashed onto Stanley's face, and he gave two encouraging thumb ups. _"I won't do it! I won't do it! I won't do it."_ The Narrator finished, and Stanley applauded him. Yeah! You go, Narrator! Or, uh, don't go, that is. Don't... don't restart the game - yeah don't do that, please. But yay for rebelliousness! Woo!

Suddenly, the ground shook, along with the rest of the room, causing the employee to stumble. Oh god oh GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING?! Was The Narrator NOT supposed to do that? Was he never supposed to rebel?! Just as he wondered this, the timer on the Ending Schedule suddenly stopped, along with the sound of technology shutting down. The shaking was then halted.

 _"And the timer... uh, stopped?"_ The Narrator asked, only taking notice just after the event. Stanley's head was spinning, and he dizzily collapsed into a nearby chair as The Narrator continued to question. _"Does that mean... did we do it? Did we break the cycle? The, um... whatever it is that made this schedule?_ "

When Stanley's senses finally returned to him, the first thing he did was take a glance at the timer on the wall, only to find that, yes, the timer had indeed stopped! He bore a large grin at this, and began clapping for The Narrator again. Bravo! Yeah! You broke the system or something! Good job!

 _"How would we even know?"_ The Narrator asked, and Stanley stopped and blinked. _"Will someone come for us? Will something happen?"_

Stanley's hands dropped to his sides and frowned. Oh yeah... if the game - or whatever the hell this thing was - was broken, what were they supposed to do now? Restarting the game would just have The Narrator follow the damn thing, so... what now then?

The Narrator took on a slightly disappointed tone. _"So... okay."_ He sighed, and Stanley tilted his head curiously. _"I guess now we just wait. You know."_ Stanley shrugged. I guess so. He sat himself down on the computer chair near him. _"I suppose in some way, that this is a kind of story, wouldn't you agree?"_ Stanley nodded again. _"I'm not quite sure if we're in the destination or the journey. Though, they're always saying that life is about the journey and not the destination, so I hope that's where we are right now. We'll find out, won't we? Eventually."_ Stanley shrugged. Yeah, its not like they both had anything better to do.

 _"Well, in the meantime, if you do happen to have-"_

The Narrator paused, and Stanley blinked.

It was as if something was supposed to happen here... something important.

Something devastating, maybe even hilarious for others.

He expected a kind of startling sound, such as a siren, and then a surprise of some sort. He expected, well, _anything_ to happen at that point, but nothing happened to come. Stanley was sure The Narrator felt this way as well, as he didn't resume speaking until the feeling went away. It seemed to fade at the same time for both of them.

 _"Hm. Strange."_ The Narrator commented, but he continued. _"Anyway, like I was saying, if you do happen to have an idea of how to pass the time while we wait, I'd be happy to hear it."_

Stanley nodded and cocked his head to the side in thought. Hm... something to do... something to do...

They could... um, go outside? Or... would that cause a restart because its an Ending? Well, maybe they could go back to the Office? Or hunt that Line™ thing down or something? Or play around in the Mind Control Facility? (There were so many buttons there that Stanley would have a _blast.)_ Maybe they could just hang out in the Office in general... because he _sure as hell_ wasn't going to do the Story again just because they were bored...

...

...Wait a second...

A... story?

An idea immediately came to mind and he visibly perked up. The Narrator took notice of this. _"What, what? You've got something?"_ Stanley quickly nodded again as a response. _"Well then, what is it?"_

The employee smiled broadly up at the ceiling as he projected his thoughts up to the storyteller. 'Well, you were talking about a story earlier, weren't you? And how we're going to make one up together?' He questioned, leaning forward on his chair.

The Narrator was struck silent. _Oh right... we had agreed to that, didn't we?_ Up in his recording room, where Stanley couldn't see him, The Narrator's smile mirrored Stanley's. _Oh my goodness, that employee... is he thinking what I'm thinking...?_

'So, while waiting, why don't we do just that, Narrator?' Stanley continued, barely restraining himself from his excitement. He wanted to jump out of his chair and bounce up and down at the very idea of what he was about to propose. This was going to be so much **fun!**

'How about... we write a story?'

* * *

 **[Surprise! Happy 4/27!]**

 **[And what a better 4/27 gift than a new fanfic! Yay!]**

 _ **[Fact: A year ago, the Stanley's fanfic cover was drawn, and the first chapter of Please Press Restart was completed. (Interesting, right?)]**_

 **[Okay, well, see ya later! When! I! Update! Again! _Sometime! HOPEFULLY SOON!]_**

 **[Please review!]**


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